


Adventures in Time-Travel

by JGVFHL



Series: Team Trickster [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Merlin (TV), Supernatural
Genre: Gabriel is bored, Gen, Loki Comes Along for the Ride, Team Trickster, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:15:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28249749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JGVFHL/pseuds/JGVFHL
Summary: Gabriel is bored, so he takes his new bestie Loki on an adventure to Camelot. Things just can't go as planned, of course.
Series: Team Trickster [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069433
Comments: 8
Kudos: 16





	Adventures in Time-Travel

Gabriel sighed quietly, sitting back on his heels on the floor of the apartment, giving up on his search through his movie collection. He had no desire to watch any of the movies they had; he obviously wasn’t hungry; and Loki hadn't really been up for any adventures since his brush with mortality in Apocalypse world. In short, Gabriel was bored. Loki didn’t seem to notice, but Gabriel wasn't surprised, considering they hadn't known each other for all that long. Gabriel had created this little place a couple months ago to escape the Winchesters' bunker and the inherent craziness that went with it, and it had been fun introducing Loki to Earth in the past weeks. But, today was just... boring.

He stood up and flopped down on the couch. Loki, who was reading at the other end of it, didn’t even flinch. 

“Hey, Lok.”

“Hm?” Loki didn’t even look up from his book.

“Have you ever been time-traveling?”

This time, Loki did look up, arching an eyebrow at the archangel sitting next to him. “Why do you ask?”

“Let me rephrase that,” Gabriel said, tucking his legs under him and turning himself to face Loki. “I’m bored. Do you wanna go time-traveling?”

Slowly, Loki reached over to the end table beside the couch, retrieved the bookmark there, stuck it in his book, then set the book down on the cushion between himself and Gabriel. “I didn’t know you could time-travel.”

“Really?” Gabriel replied, frowning. “Coulda sworn I told you at some point.”

Loki shrugged. “Perhaps I don’t remember it.”

“Okay, well, do you wanna go time-traveling?” He watched Loki think it over. He was still a little cautious of traveling through time and space after ending up in this dimension accidentally. “You can pick the time …” Gabriel added in a sing-song voice.

Loki smirked and looked at him. “Is that so?”

“Wouldn’t lie to you.”

“Okay, fine,” Loki said. “Let’s go time-traveling.”

Gabriel beamed at him. “Awesome! Where to, friend-o? Or when, I guess.”

Loki shrugged. He glanced down at the book he’d been reading, and picked it up. After studying the cover for a second, he flipped it around so Gabriel could see. It was a version of the Arthurian Legends. “Could we go here?”

Gabriel tilted his head as he reached out to take the book. “Huh,” he said. “That’s somewhere I wouldn’t have thought of.”

“Is there something wrong with it?”

“No,” Gabriel replied, still staring at the book. “Not at all. Just … an interesting choice.” He looked back at Loki. “This is where you wanna go?”

“Sure,” Loki said. “Beats sticking around here.”

“Exactly,” Gabriel smiled, raising his hand, his fingers poised to snap. “Camelot, here we come.”

The tricksters appeared on leaf-covered ground under a thick canopy of tree branches. Sunlight seeped in through the leaves above, pooling in bright puddles on the ground. Birds chattered away in the trees. Looking around, there was not a single thing signifying humans lived anywhere nearby. No paths, no telephone poles, no airplanes droning by overhead. It reminded Loki of Asgard in certain ways. When he, Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three had gone hunting way back when, it had been through forests not dissimilar to this one. Although Asgardian forests were taller, older, and quite frankly more unsettling.

“Well,” Gabriel said, turning in a half-circle, arms spread wide to show off the surroundings, “welcome to the Kingdom of Camelot.”

“It’s nice,” Loki replied.

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah. I’d forgotten what it was like before the Industrial Revolution.”

“The what?”

“Nothing,” Gabriel said dismissively. “Whaddya wanna do, Lok? This is your adventure, after all.”

Loki arched an eyebrow at him. “We’re only here because you were bored.”

“True enough. But you requested this time.”

He was correct. “I don’t know. What did you do when you were here?”

Gabriel frowned. “Who said I was here?”

“I’m interpreting.”

“Your interpreting is weirdly correct,” Gabriel said, narrowing his eyes. “You’re getting to know me a bit too well, methinks.”

Loki shrugged. Weeks of careful observation paid off. “I’ve heard that happens after living with someone for extended periods of time.”

“True,” the angel replied. Then he shrugged, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket, which had appeared on his person upon arrival. “I dunno. When I was here, I didn’t do much. I think my vessel accidentally became a Knight of the Round Table.”

Loki frowned. The concept of vessels was still foreign to him, and a little unsettling. “How’d you manage that?”

“Well, I wasn’t in control of the vessel. I was just letting it go on autopilot the whole time so I could hide from other angels.”

“Then this was before meeting the other Loki?”

“A little bit, yeah,” Gabriel nodded. “After that vessel… became indisposed, I went looking and found Loki. You know the rest.”

Loki nodded. After a bit of persuasion, Gabriel had at last related his entire history with the other Loki, although Loki was fairly certain he had taken some generous creative liberties. But it was Gabriel, which hardly made that surprising. “Is there a way to--” Loki’s suggestion died on his lips when the sound of voices drifted by on the wind, drawing his attention.

Gabriel noticed, and listened intently, his superior senses picking up finer details. “Sounds like fight,” he murmured. “Over there.” He pointed to his left.

The tricksters looked at each other, standing still until curiosity got the better of both of them, then turning in unison to follow the noise. Their search brought them to the edge a thicket of ferns almost three feet deep in a wide clearing in the trees. A tree trunk, a felled giant bisecting the area, explained the gap in the tree canopy. Loki and Gabriel crept closer, wading through green leaves until they were behind the fallen log. The sounds of fighting had become unmistakable now: the clanging steel, the thudding feet, the cries of injury and triumph. The tricksters raised their eyes just above the tree trunk, just in time to see the conflict spill into the clearing.

A score of fighters were engaged, almost two-thirds of them wearing dark clothing and wielding random weapons--obviously not an organized force in the traditional sense. Their opponents, on the other hand, clearly were: they all wore mail shirts, steel plate armor, and bright red cloaks, and their fighting was admirable. However, they were sorely outnumbered.

“Any idea what’s going on?” Loki murmured to Gabriel. “You’re the one with experience here.”

“If I had to guess,” his friend answered, “the red guys are knights of Camelot fighting off bandits.”

“‘Fighting off?’ They’re losing.”

Gabriel nodded. “Looks like it.”

Loki looked at Gabriel, his brows drawing together. He glanced at the combat, then back at the archangel next to him. “So now what?”

"What?"

"You're the one who's bored, and I don't know the rules of time-travel here."

"Rules?" Gabriel asked, tilting his head to one side. "Oh, like no touching your past-slash-future self or you'll get sucked into a black hole? Those rules?"

"Yes, those rules, Gabriel."

"There aren't any. I think."

Loki gave the angel a look. "You think?" Time was finicky at best, and he would prefer to be certain of these things.

"Hey, listen, I don't remember me showing up in the past, so obviously if Past Me now meets This Me, nothing changes because of it, because I don't remember seeing Future Me in the past."

After sifting through the slurry of words, Loki grasped his meaning. “So… what do we do?”

“Whatever we want, I guess,” Gabriel replied. “Wanna beat up some bad guys?”

Loki looked back to the skirmish. It would be satisfying to win something. No one knew who he was here, so… “Why not?” he finally said.

“Awesome. First things first.” Gabriel snapped his fingers, and his modern-day jeans and jacket had been traded for cloth pants and a brown leather jacket.

Loki caught a look at his own clothes, and realized Gabriel had changed his outfit as well. “Gabriel…” he said.

“What? Oh, you don't like it when I do that, right. Sorry,” Gabriel said, peeking over the log again. They’d figured that out a while ago, but evidently it hadn’t sunk in yet.

Loki sighed through his nose, not complaining further because he had to admit Gabriel had some sense of taste. He had a blue shirt, black pants and boots, and a long black coat over it all. Seems he wasn't the only one making careful observations. “Shall we?”

“You know it, friend-o.”

He vaulted the log easily, hearing Gabriel mutter something about tall freaks as he climbed over next to him. Conjuring two daggers to his hands, he spun one experimentally, remembering how it felt, then curled his arm back and flung one of them towards the nearest foe.

“Shit. I was gonna make a snarky comment about how well the name Knives fits you, but now I don’t think that’s the smartest thing to do,” Gabriel said.

A few of the bandits noticed their comrade fall and had found the source, and Gabriel still didn’t have a weapon in his hands.

“Are you really going to fight them with your angel powers?” Loki asked.

“No, I just--” Gabriel held out his hands, and two different swords appeared in them. One looked like the swords wielded by the knights, and the other had a triple edge and an odd hilt. “Haven’t decided which one to use, y’know?”

“Decide quickly, then.”

Their opponents reached them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gabriel choose the more contemporary sword, but after that, he put all his focus into fighting. Living quietly with Gabriel on Earth, he’d almost forgotten the exhilaration of fighting—especially when you were winning. And Loki was winning. These bandits were no match for the trickster god’s twin blades, deadly flashes of silver barely seen before finding their target.

“Who the hell are you two?” one of the knights shouted to Loki and Gabriel.

“We’re help!” Gabriel called back. “How many more of them are there? Out of curiosity?”

“The rest of our men are distracting them,” replied another knight. “But there’s so many of them—”

“Incoming!” one of the knights yelled.

Loki looked up after dispatching his latest foe. A thundering noise was coming from farther in the forest. Many of them indeed, it appeared. A new mob of bandits burst from the forest, charging into the combat without a second thought. All told, the bandits probably numbered forty or fifty, against five knights, an archangel, and a god of sorts. Even with the supernatural backup, it wasn’t enough.

“Run!” one of the knights shouted to his comrades as the bandits poured in. Soon the entire clearing was overrun, the knights becoming specks of red in a sea of black and brown. Loki could still hold his own with relative ease, but he could see this was a lost cause, even if Gabriel used his powers. Coming to a decision, his daggers vanished in a flash of green light.

“Are you mad?” Two of the knights had wound up fighting nearby, and one of them noticed Loki no longer had weapons drawn.

“Possibly,” Loki replied, flicking his hand out towards an oncoming foe, a knife flying from it at the last second and burying itself in the attacker’s throat. “But I’d leave that debate for some other time. Move!” He gestured towards the fallen log where he and Gabriel had concealed themselves. With the bandits pressing in, the knights needed no more prompting, and took off over the tree trunk and into the forest. “Time to disappear,” Loki muttered to himself. He cast an illusion, effectively hiding him from view, and the bandits were too busy to notice what had happened. Loki didn’t wait around to see what else they’d do, and wasted no time in following the knights.

Loki followed the trail of the two knights, figuring it would be best to be around people who knew what was going on around here. He hadn’t seen what had become of Gabriel, but he wasn’t terribly worried. From what he’d learned, Gabriel was tough to kill, and he was smart enough to keep himself safe. Well… Loki had to hope so, anyway. Right now, he was concentrating on keeping the knights in view, listening for signs of pursuit, but none were heard. The knights must have heard it too, because they finally slowed and then stopped, one of them leaning his back against a tree to catch his breath.

When Loki stepped slowly into view, however, signs of tiredness vanished as they stood up straight, swords leveled at the newcomer. Once they recognized him, they lowered their weapons, but remained on guard. It was the first good look Loki had gotten of the two since joining their fight against the bandits. One was taller than the other--indeed taller, even, than Loki by a few inches. He reminded Loki of his brother in an uncanny sort of way. Must be the muscle and lack of sleeves. The other had longer dark hair that fell across his eyes every now and then.

“Who’re you?” the dark-haired knight asked. Now he just sounded like Dean Winchester. “Why’d you help?”

Loki thought carefully about answering. He’d learned that throwing your own name around wasn’t always the best decision, but in this time, he would be barely two hundred years of age. What harm could it do? “I’m Loki.”

“Like the god?” the taller knight said.

Loki cursed inwardly. How did they know his—oh, right. Earth had her own version of the trickster god, the one Gabriel had first met. Still, he was curious. “How do you know the gods?”

“My father came from the north,” the knight answered. “One of the raiders. He brought his gods with him. Loki’s the trickster god, right?”

Interesting. Loki nodded. “Indeed he is. And who are you?”

“I’m Gwaine,” said the knight with dark hair. “This is Percival.”

“Thanks for the help back there,” Percival added.

“You looked like you needed it,” Loki responded.

Gwaine sheathed his sword, saying to Percival, “We need to find the others.”

Percival nodded, also sheathing his sword. “Yeah, well, have fun fighting your way through those bandits to find ‘em. We don’t know how many of them are there, and we don’t know where their hideout is.”

“So we track them and figure it out,” Gwaine said.

Loki recalled something Gabriel had mentioned several weeks ago. Angels could hear prayers, usually from anywhere. He didn’t know how it was supposed to work, though. “Let me try something.” He closed his eyes and thought. Gabriel had explained the concept of prayer as it related to angels a while ago, but Loki had never really had occasion to use it. Until now.

_ Gabriel, I’m hoping you can hear me. If you can, I’m still in the forest near the bandit attack, and I could use your help. _

Loki waited a few moments, wondering if Gabriel had even heard him, and not certain what he’d say if Gabriel didn’t answer.

“Is something supposed to happen?” Percival asked, casting his glance around the surroundings.

“Yes,” Loki replied, opening his eyes. Then he added to himself, “Not sure what, but something.” He turned back to the knights, his mind racing as his self-preservation instincts started kicking in, just in case. He was conjuring words to explain what was going on, but then he noticed that Gwaine was staring… through him. Not at him. Through him.

Percival must have noticed the two of them staring, because he made an expression of confusion and cleared his throat.

Loki ignored him. “You heard me, didn’t you?” he said to Gwaine.

Gwaine blinked. “Heard what?”

“Not you,” Loki said. “Him.”

“Who?”

“Gabriel.”

At sound of the name, a blue light appeared in Gwaine’s eyes, shining brightly for a second, then fading. The knight squared his shoulders and tilted his head slightly to one side. This was Gabriel. “How you know my name?”

“I’d have thought you would have sensed it when we showed up just now,” Loki replied. “My friend and me, that is.”

Gwaine nodded, still eyeing Loki curiously. “I noticed. I didn’t want to draw attention.”

“I know,” Loki said. “Any chance you’d be willing to lend us a hand? The other Gabriel’s not answering.”

Gwaine’s mouth opened to reply, but he suddenly doubled over, his eyes squeezing shut.

Percival reached out a hand towards him, but didn’t get too close. “Gwaine? You alright?”

Without warning, Gwaine pulled himself upright with a growl. He looked first at Percival’s face of utter confusion, then at Loki. In a flash, he drew his sword and leveled it at Loki. “What the hell was that?” he demanded.

“Nothing to be concerned about,” Loki assured him. He was intrigued, however. He didn’t think retaking control like that was possible. Perhaps this knight was stronger than Loki had initially calculated.

“Nothing to be—! I was just shoved into a corner of my own mind! So, yeah, I’m a little concerned,” Gwaine shot back. “What the hell did you do?”

“I did nothing.”

“Then what happened?” Gwaine asked again, stepping towards Loki, his sword still raised.

“You’re possessed.” Best to use the truth here. This world had magic. It would be easy enough to pass it off. Hopefully.

There was silence.

“By what?” Gwaine asked, sounding less accusational and more cautious than before.

“An archangel named Gabriel,” Loki replied. “And we need his help if we’re going to save your friends, understand?”

“I’m possessed by an  _ angel _ ?”

“Yes, let’s try to keep up. We need Gabriel’s help to find your friends and mine. Make sense?”

Gwaine and Percival were still processing the information. “How… is the angel supposed to help?” Gwaine asked slowly.

Loki sighed. Explaining the supernatural to humans was tiring. “An archangel, as a being of immense power, can do a lot of very useful things, such as flying. And searching large areas in a matter of seconds. And smiting enemies. Seem helpful yet?” He had yet to see Gabriel smite any enemies, but he’d done some reading. It was theoretically possible.

Gwaine hadn’t quite caught up. “How did I get possessed by an angel?” he said, finally lowering his sword.

Loki shrugged. “You gave it permission at some point.”

“Are you saying he asked for this?” Percival asked.

“No, I’m saying an angel can’t use a human as a vessel unless the human agrees to it first. You have to say yes.”

Gwaine blinked. He furrowed his brow and stared at some point on the ground. “I don’t remember saying yes to an angel,” he said after moments of contemplation.

“Who knows what happened, I’m hardly an expert on the subject!” Loki replied, finally fed up with questions. “Can we move on now?”

“Not an expert?” Gwaine said. “You knew all that an you’re saying you’re not an expert?”

“Gabriel!”

Gwaine’s eyes lit up blue again, and he turned towards Loki, sheathing his sword. “I didn’t realize how strong this vessel was when I chose it. But I will help you.”

“Thank you,” Loki said, silently grateful the questions had stopped. He wasn’t sure how many more of them he could have answered. “We need to figure out where the bandits have their hideout. Could you find it?”

“Of course, I’m an archangel.” Clearly, Gabriel had not changed much in the centuries since. Gwaine fell silent, staring off into space.

“Um,” Percival said, “he is going to be… alright after all this, right?”

“Your friend will be fine,” Loki assured him. “Gabriel can alter memories to make it seem like this never happened.” Percival nodded, but didn’t appear quite convinced.

“These bandits are a lot more of a problem than you thought,” Gwaine suddenly announced.

“How so?” Percival inquired.

“They have an entire castle full of bandits and your friends are being held in the dungeons, behind defenses almost one hundred men strong.”

“And one hundred men is a problem for archangels?” Loki said.

Gwaine rolled his eyes. More Gabriel was showing by the second. “No, but I’m trying to keep a low profile, so charging in and smiting a hundred humans isn’t the best plan. And second of all, they have magic. We can wait until nightfall, then I can get you in without detection.”

“Nightfall?” Loki repeated. “That’s another seven hours at least. They might not have that kind of time. My magic can hide your grace while we’re there; we should leave now.” It was a perk they had recently discovered. Loki’s magic interacted differently with Gabriel’s, and it had passed the time to figure out how.

“Really?” Gwaine said. “Oh. Yes, let’s go.” He gestured for Loki and Percival to come towards him, which they did, although Percival was considerably more cautious than the other. “Ready?” Loki and Percival nodded. “Alright. One bandit-infested castle coming up.” He put a hand each on their shoulders, and the three of them disappeared from the woods.

* * *

Castles never failed to be gloomy, just as Gabriel remembered. This castle seemed gloomier than average. The bandits weren’t well-supplied with torches, let alone candles, and the last place they were concerned with lighting was the dungeons. Gabriel hadn’t really expected the captors to have magic, which had thrown a wrench in his plans. The magic wasn’t all that powerful, but it was enough to enchant a jail cell to keep an archangel under control, which was exactly where Gabriel had ended up. The rest of the knights were farther down the cellblock, out of sight. So far, none of them had been harmed that Gabriel could tell, but who knows when that might change.

Gabriel had heard Loki’s prayer. It had surprised him at first; he’d never expected Loki to have a reason to pray to him. However, this damn cell and its enchantments kept him from flying anywhere. Which definitely meant Loki knew something was wrong. But right now, Gabriel needed to work on getting out of here. Not like he hadn’t been trying, but this cell was making everything more difficult, especially now that he had to concentrate mental energy on not thinking about the last time he was trapped in a cell unable to use his grace.

He had finished his umpteeth circuit around the cell’s perimeter, searching for any weaknesses, both structural and magical, but had once again failed to find anything. The tramp of footsteps drew his attention to the dim corridor outside the cells. A group of men appeared, two of them stopping at Gabriel’s door, and two more moving to a cell farther down. The two that had stopped at Gabriel’s door stood on either side of it, waiting until a fifth figure walked over to stand in front of the door, looking in at the archangel. A dark hood hid the face.

“What sort of sorcerer are you?” the figure asked.

“I’m not, dumbass,” Gabriel replied immediately. He was in no mood to be charming.

“Then what are you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Gabriel said, leaning against the back wall of the cell, putting as much distance between himself and the men by the door as possible.

“Yes, I would,” the figure said. “Your magic is very powerful, and it would be useful in our campaign.”

“Yeah, well, sorry, boys. I never liked D&D.”

The figure contemplated this, probably trying to determine what D&D was, and eventually giving up. “Your stubbornness will get you nowhere, you know. My physicians are quite adept at finding the source of a problem. I’m sure they will have no trouble picking you apart.”

The way he said that made Gabriel’s skin crawl. It was getting more and more difficult not to panic. Damn this magic. Since when did humans have the power to control angels? Okay, fine, for a while, but this? Come on. This wasn’t fair. Gabriel suddenly realized that the guards had stepped aside, leaving just the hooded figure. The figure raised a hand, reciting a series of words--Old English, if Gabriel’s memory served him well. Next thing he knew, a wave of magic hit him like a barrel of cement, and he blacked out.

_ Wait a minute. Since when can angels get knocked out? Archangels especially. Doesn’t seem right…  _ Gabriel opened his eyes and looked around, careful to not move so he wouldn’t draw attention. He could see stone floor, which helped him not at all, because the entire castle was made of stone. The room was well-lit, however, which meant he wasn’t in the dungeons. Gabriel moved his head up, taking in more of the room. He was propped up in a seated position against the wall and his wrists were shackled and chained to a metal ring protruding from the wall. The cuffs weren’t enchanted, but they still made his heart skip a few beats before he remembered where he  _ wasn’t _ . He could see no one else in the room, and the only furnishings were a large wooden table and several shelves of books and scrolls.

Tugging on the chain, he found it—as chains should be—solid and unyielding.  _ No problem for an archangel _ , he thought, and tugged harder. Nothing moved. All the chains did was rattle. Something wasn’t right. Gabriel assessed himself. He was uninjured, but—oh no. Oh crap. A string of expletives ran through his head. Not again. Not ever again. Dammit.

A door opened with a clunk, and Gabriel’s head snapped up, feeling far more vulnerable than he would like. The same hooded figure as before walked in, followed by three others, their faces fully visible at least.

“You’re awake, that’s good,” the lead figure said. For once in his life, Gabriel didn’t talk back. Part of him wanted to: part of him wanted nothing more than to mouth off like no tomorrow to these horrible, terrible people. But every other part him was now pinning that part down, shoving a mental rag in its mouth to keep it quiet and Gabriel safe. The mysterious figure carried on. “We haven’t asked all our questions yet.”

Gabriel stayed quiet as the three followers walked over to him, one brandishing a key. He freed Gabriel’s wrists from the shackles. Then they stood back, like the guards had in the dungeons, allowing the hooded figure to come right up to Gabriel and kneel down on the stone floor, his face leveled with Gabriel’s.

“For example,” the person asked, raising a bony hand and drawing back the hood. “What are you?” He peered at Gabriel with grey eyes, eyes not seeming quite human, though Gabriel knew them to be.

“Pissed off,” Gabriel replied, without the gumption he had hoped for.

“Yes, we’ve established your impertinence and mule-like qualities,” the man said. He reached into a pocket by his hip and pulled out a vial of glowing blue ethereal mist: it was Gabriel’s grace, or part of it anyway. Just looking at it like that made Gabriel feel sick. “What is this? We know it to be the source of your power, and that it contains considerable power itself, but surely you could provide other details?”

Right now, the only details Gabriel could have provided them were how many bricks had lined his cell in Hell and exactly how many stitches had run across his lips. He didn’t notice the sounds of fighting outside, and neither, it seemed, did the four in the room. Until, that is, the door burst open, and in stormed Loki and two knights of Camelot—one of whom Gabriel knew as himself.

* * *

Loki’s eyes landed on Gabriel immediately, then on the glowing vial in the old man’s hands. The pieces weren’t hard to fit together.

“They all have magic,” Gwaine, speaking for Gabriel, warned them.

“So do I,” Loki reminded him. His hand flew out, two small daggers materializing as they left his hand, aimed at two of the men. They countered using their magic as a shield. In the second it took for them to reorganize, Gwaine sent them flying into the back wall with a flick of his wrist.

Gabriel had made a grab for the vial containing his grace during the chaos, but that had only resulted in his getting magically pinned to the wall by the man who had been talking to him. The man and the only follower left with him stood, flanking Gabriel, daring the three intruders to make a move.

“Release him,” Loki demanded.

“No,” the man answered, gripping the vial tightly.

Loki stepped forward, and the room suddenly filled with a dozen copies of himself, all circling the two sorcerers. Using the distraction to his advantage, Gabriel grabbed the ankle of the man speaking and yanked his foot out from under him. When the follower dove to catch the man, Loki was already there, ramming the pommel of one dagger between the man’s eyes, then plunging the other into his gut before throwing him to the ground. Without missing a beat, Loki whirled around and flung one of his daggers, the handle protruding from the fallen man’s sternum. The man looked shocked to see the handle of a dagger suddenly grow from his chest, but only a raspy croak came from his mouth before his head fell back to the stone floor.

“What… the hell?” Gwaine was back in control of his own body again. “Did—did you do all this?” he asked Loki.

Loki ignored the question for the moment, focusing instead on his friend. He retrieved the vial from the dead man’s hand—luckily it hadn’t fallen during the fight—and held it out to Gabriel. But Gabriel just stared through it, breathing rapidly.

“Gabriel?” Loki said, reaching out towards Gabriel’s shoulder, but never making contact. He wasn’t sure if it would make things worse. The archangel blinked, noticing Loki. “Do you want this?” Loki asked, holding out the vial.

Gabriel looked at the vial, studying it carefully before reaching out to take it. “Yeah,” he said, very quietly. “Yeah, thanks.”

“Gabriel, what happened? How did they get your grace?”

Gabriel shook his head. “I… I don’t know. I don’t know how, I blacked out, and—an’ then—I couldn’t do anything, and—an’— I—I… I don’t know.” He pressed his fingertips to his temples and curled his knees up to his chest. “I told myself it wouldn’t happen,” he said, and Loki couldn’t tell if it was directed at him or no one in particular. “Not again, never, ever,  _ ever _ again. It can’t happen—” He broke off, mouthing words no one could hear.

“Hey, hey, hey, shh. You’re fine,” Loki said, trying his best to calm Gabriel down. It wasn’t a strong suit. He didn’t like seeing Gabriel like this. “You’ve got your grace, right? You’re safe. Gabriel? Right?”

“I hate to interrupt,” Gwaine began, “but we’ve got more company coming.” He and Percival held their ground by the doorway, swords still drawn.

Loki looked to the doorway, hearing the sounds of approaching feet, then looked back at Gabriel. “Gabriel, we need your help.”

Gabriel took a breath and let it out slowly. “You’re right,” he nodded. “Okay, yeah. You’re… you’re right.” He nodded again, as if reaffirming that to himself. Then he unstoppered the vial and held it up in front of his face, mouth open slightly. The glowing threads of grace floated up out of the vial and into Gabriel’s mouth. For a second, his eyes lit up blue as his grace restored itself.

“Good?” Loki said.

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah, for the most part.” He flung the vial across the room where it shattered against the wall. “Let’s go.”

Loki stood up and offered him a hand up, which was readily accepted. “You’re sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“Yes, I am sure,” Gabriel replied. “Although your concern is touching,” he added with a small smile.

* * *

Much, much later that day, after the sun had set and the rescued patrol of knights had made camp for the night, and after food had been passed around (food that Gabriel may or may not have snapped into existence), Loki was sitting against a tree on the edge of the camp, twirling a knife in his fingers to occupy his mind. Gabriel still with the others, probably telling stories or something else to make himself the center of attention. Loki could still sense his grace, so he wasn’t worried too much.

This had been an… unintentionally hair-raising adventure, to be sure. It reminded him of the trouble Thor would manage to find on every single outing from the palace. Sometimes it was a sounder of boar they had run from; sometimes a herd of snorting deer; once it had been a very upset hunter brandishing an axe. Every single time, something had gone wrong. It was a wonder both of them had survived this long, really.

Moments later, Gabriel walked over and sat down beside him. “Heyo.”

“Hey. Feel alright?”

Gabriel nodded. “Yeah. I do.”

“Good.”

There was a pause. Gabriel shifted closer to the base of the tree, leaning slightly against Loki’s shoulder. “Hey, look, I’m sorry about all that—”

“If you’re apologizing for what happened to you, I’ll just tell you to stop right now,” Loki cut him off.

“What?”

Loki looked over at him. “You heard me.”

“Yeah, no,” Gabriel said, turning his gaze to his hands. “I’m—I just… didn’t know how messed up I am, and. … I dunno. I ruined a perfectly good adventure because I didn’t know how messed up my head is, and I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Loki told him. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Gabriel arched an eyebrow at him. “Yeah, right. If I hadn’t panicked—”

“Gabriel.” Loki sighed and moved himself from against the tree so he was facing the angel, the knife he’d been toying with disappearing in a flash. He wasn’t normally up for talks like this, but… Gabriel was his friend. He hadn’t had one of those in a long time. “Listen to me. What happened was not your fault. You did not and have not ruined the adventure. You had no way of knowing how your mind would react in that situation. You don’t have to apologize. Understand?”

Gabriel didn’t answer, but he held eye contact.

Loki went on, “So we’re both a little messed up. It happens. But we’re not dead, so that’s a win.” Gabriel’s mouth turned up slightly at the corners. Loki got to his feet and gestured for Gabriel to do the same. “Come on, I found something I think you’ll appreciate.”

They walked in silence through the woods, the noise from the knights’ camp growing dimmer and dimmer as they went. Gabriel let Loki lead the way, smiling to himself every time Loki had to duck under a branch and he didn’t. An owl hooted once or twice, and every so often, Gabriel heard bats chirping overhead. After a few minutes, they reached a hill. Gabriel recognized it. They’d walked around it on their way back from the bandits’ castle.

“All the way up there?” Gabriel asked, pausing to peer up through the branches to find the hilltop.

“Yep,” Loki replied, already walking up the side of the hill. Gabriel groaned inwardly. He may be a cosmic entity of considerable power, but that didn’t mean he liked exercise. “It’s worth it, come on.”

“Ugh, fine.”

When they reached the hilltop, Loki stopped and turned to Gabriel.

“What?” Gabriel said. “Please tell me this isn’t what you wanted to show me.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you that this is what I wanted to show you.” Gabriel crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, knowing that there was more here than Loki was letting on. Loki rolled his eyes. “Look up.”

The hilltop had been cleared of trees decades before, and they had yet to grow back, leaving a window in the canopy. Beyond the window was a sky so dark blue it seemed every star in space could be seen. Endless numbers of bright pinpricks stretched out in all directions, the smudge of light that was the Milky Way arching over the whole scene. The moon was there, but it was just a slice of silver against the velvet backdrop, its bright light dimmed enough to showcase every beauty in the Heavens. Gabriel remembered the first time he’d seen the star-studded skies, all those billions of years ago. They were still just as magnificent as on the day of their creation. So peaceful.

“They’re strange stars,” Loki said quietly, “but still beautiful.”

Gabriel glanced at him and smiled. “Okay, now I know you know me too well.”

Loki smirked. He crossed his arms over his chest, still gazing up. “I used to do this all the time on Asgard. Usually when Thor was being particularly stupid.”

“So...all the time?”

“Pretty much. What are Earth’s constellations like?”

Gabriel looked at him. “You don’t--oh, yeah, of course not. I’ll show you. Lie down.” Loki obeyed, stretching out on the grass. Gabriel did likewise, but facing the opposite direction with his head next to Loki’s so if they turned to look at each other, the other’s face would be upside down. “Okay, so, you see those three bright ones up there, in a line?” Gabriel said, pointing up.

“Yeah.”

“Those are called Orion’s Belt. Those guys are his shoulders, his knees, and he’s holding a shield over there. See? And over there, those three stars are the handle of the Big Dipper. Or Ursa Major, whichever. And if you follow those two stars up...you get Polaris, which is Earth’s North Star. For right now anyway. Over there, that bright one is Vega, which literally just means ‘star’ in Spanish. Star Star. It’s part of Lyra, that kinda rectangle thingy around it like that…”

It wasn’t until several minutes of Gabriel pointing out constellations had passed that he noticed Loki had fallen asleep. Gabriel couldn’t blame him. They’d both had a long day, and it was late. He sat up and moved to sit closer to his friend, preparing to remain here the rest of the night with him. It was only then that he realized how calm he felt. None of the day’s anxiety, fear, or depression was there anymore. They hadn’t even crossed his mind until now. He was… happy. He smiled and looked down at Loki.

“You just tricked me out of being miserable, didn’t you?” He shook his head. “You clever son of a bitch.” He smiled wider and craned his neck up at the starry sky.

“Why do you care for him so much?”

Gabriel looked around until he saw Gwaine standing at the treeline just to Gabriel’s left. But he knew it was the archangel speaking.

“Uh, ‘cause he’s my friend?”

“You’re an archangel.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Yeah, so?”

“So…” Gwaine didn’t finish the sentence, but there was an implication there that Gabriel had heard thousands of times before.  _ So… you’re better than them. _

“Yeesh,” Gabriel scoffed. “You sound like Michael and Luci talking like that. Gimme a break. In case you hadn’t noticed, the next few centuries aren’t exactly peaches and cream for us. Things changed. Michael, Lucifer, God? They don’t matter where I am. Hell, Lucifer’s dead and Michael’s locked in a cage. I can do whatever and care about whatever—or whoever—I want. It’s called free will. You might try it.”

Gwaine took a few steps forward and sat down cross-legged on the grass across from Gabriel. “But you’re… damaged. I can see it. Your grace is—”

“Is what?” Gabriel snapped, bristling. Beside him, Loki moved his head in his sleep. Immediately, he forced himself to relax so he wouldn’t disturb him. “Yeah, I’m messed up, I know I am. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m happy. When was the last time you were happy?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I’ll tell you: it was a couple thousand years ago, and it’ll be a few hundred more years before you get close again. So you can’t blame me for wanting to hang on to this.”

“I don’t,” Gwaine told him. “I just—I could change all that, couldn’t I? Cos I’m past you, right?”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. “Don’t you dare.”

Gwaine smiled slightly. “I won’t, calm down.”

“I’m not joking. Don’t.”

“I’m not either. I won’t.”

“Good.”

There was a pause here, but it wasn’t as tense as it might have been earlier. Eventually, Gwaine said, “I’m glad you’re happy. That’s something to look forward to, at least.”

“Yeah, about that…. I don’t remember any of this happening. Which means I wiped my memory before leaving. I’d suggest you do the same.” Gwaine looked put out. Gabriel could understand why. “I know,” he said, “it’s not fair. But it’s the only way to guarantee you won’t mess this up for us.”

“Even with all you’ve gone through?”

Gabriel didn’t answer right away, although he knew his response in an instant. He paused, letting his words sink in, unspoken though they were. “If I knew what I would go through,” he began, “all the chaos, all the heartbreak, all the hiding, all the pain, all of it--even if I knew that--if I also knew that I’d get out of it alive and with… a friend, I’d do it again.” He shook his head. “No questions asked, I’d do it. A thousand times, a million times, I’d do it.”

Gwaine nodded silently, absorbing this. Gabriel knew it was a strange statement coming from an archangel, but he found he cared less and less about being an archangel as time went by. More and more, he just wanted to be Gabriel. He wanted some kind of normal, whatever that was. Of course, tricksters and normalcy seemed, until now, to be mutually exclusive, and with Loki around, that was almost doubly true. Sure, Loki’s unintentional survival most recently meant he had a clean slate around here, but Gabriel knew from personal experience that clean slates didn’t always stay that way. And if Gabriel hadn’t been there to help him… well, he tried not to think about it.

Gwaine spoke, drawing Gabriel’s attention back to the present. “I promise I’ll clear my memory,” he said, and disappeared with a rustle of wings.

Angels really did make dramatic exits, Gabriel mused. He sighed through his nose and plucked a blade of grass to fiddle with as he thought. Eventually, he got bored of thinking. He lay back down, assuming the same position he had for stargazing, and closed his eyes. The familiar presence of Loki’s magic and the quiet hum of surrounding nature quickly lulled his mind into a state as close to sleep as angels could manage. Not such a ruined adventure, after all.


End file.
